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Replacing old water pipes, upgrading infrastructure for water treatment plants and planning and implementing water saving projects will be some of the major expenditures for the City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Department in the 2010/2011 financial year. As a result, tariffs for water and sanitation will increase to cover the costs of water and sanitation during the 2010/11 financial year.
The latest water tariffs for Cape Town are below. Perhaps you found this page through google, as you want someone to explain your water bill for you or you simply want the latest water tariffs or sanitation tariffs for Cape Town. Continue reading Price of water & your water bill explained.
By Andisiwe Makinana
Political Writer – This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on August 20, 2010
Oil company PetroSA will run out of water at its refinery in Mossel Bay by the end of October and may be forced to close temporarily.
It is not only the refinery that is running on empty. The town of Mossel Bay has between 97 and 126 days before it, too, runs out of water, municipal officials told visiting members of the Western Cape provincial legislature (MPLs) on Thursday.
The gas-to-liquid (GTL) refinery will run out of water within 46 to 56 days time, its operations manager, Michael Nene, said at the meeting with the provincial legislature.
Continue reading Another 53 days before water runs out.
It is estimated that South Africa’s sewerage treatment systems are currently six billion rand behind in development. Due to the lack of upgrading treatment works, raw sewerage spills are becoming more & more common throughout South Africa.
 I’m briefly going to explain how we, as responsible citizens, could make a difference in reducing raw sewerage spills into our rivers and estuaries. If you type the word ‘sewage’ in Google and you’ll find +-23million links, that will give you all sorts of information on sewage treatment, sewage systems, sewage pollution, sewage pumps, sewage in rivers and the list goes on! I however, have narrowed the 23million pages down into two simple solutions.
Apart from the lack of upgrading the infrastructure, the single biggest factor causing sewage spills are the amount of water arriving at the sewage treatment works. Sewage treatment works does not have the capacity to hold the amount of water arriving at the facilities during peak hours. As a result, raw & untreated sewage are spilled into rivers and estuaries.
There is only one simple solution;
- Reduce the amount of water that are being send to sewage treatment works.
How to achieved this?
- Greywater (bath / shower / laundry) accounts for 70% of water that are send to sewage treatment works. By installing a greywater reuse system, you could reuse your greywater to irrigate your garden with. If every household took the initiate to reuse greywater, the volume of water arriving at sewage treatment works, will be reduced by 70%.
- Alternatively, one could look at reducing the amount of water required to flush your toilet with. To gain a better understanding of such systems, please follow the link Water Rhapsody Toilet Multiflush
Both these solutions are long term sustainable solutions that will have an positive impact on the environment and more importantly, REDUCE your water bill & water usage.
Water Rhapsody -Rainwater Harvesting & water tanks / Greywater Re-Use
For more information on rainwater harvesting / grey water re-use please contact Werner @ Water Rhapsody. We operate throughout South Africa and can provide you with long term sustainable solutions.
The Mosselbay municipality has given the go ahead for a R240m seawater desalination plant. What else could they have done with R240m?
The graph below indicates how serious the drought in the Garden Route (or more specifically Mosselbay) is. The water level has been deteriorating since Mid November 2009. By following the trend, it would suggest that Mosselbay would run out of water by January 2011.
The Mosselbay Municipality has now commenced with the construction of the Mosselbay Seawater Desalination plant. The project, estimated to cost R240 million, will start delivering water to the dam by January 2010. This however, will not be enough water to satisfy demand for Mosselbay.
I wonder who is going to pay for such development? Surely the municipality is going to pass the cost onto consumers, so prepare yourselves for some heavy increases…
Alternatively, for R240m, the municipality could have bought sixty nine thousand , 5000l water tanks. Households could have installed their tanks and harvest rainwater from their roofs. This would have ensured an additional storage space of 345,000,000 (three hundred and forty five million) liters of storage space.
69,000 water tanks (5000l), would have given Mosselbay 1.3 x more storage space than the TOTAL storage space of the Wolwedans dam.
Finally, I wonder how long it will take and how much it will cost for Mosselbay’s seawater desalination plant to produce 345,000,000 litres of water…..?
Whilst the Garden Route are experiencing the worst drought in 152 years, the rest of the Western Cape are not far behind from entering a drought cycle. Dam levels are currently 10% lower than the same time last year. Water demand will soon outstrip supply if we do not receive heavy downpour’s in the Garden Route.
| Dam |
FSC |
This Week |
Last Week |
Last Year |
| Berg River dam |
127.1 |
100.2 |
100.2 |
100.6 |
| Brandvlei Dam |
284.3 |
70.3 |
70.3 |
74.7 |
| Buffeljags Dam |
4.6 |
100.3 |
100.3 |
100.3 |
| Bulshoek Dam |
4.9 |
95.2 |
95.2 |
82.9 |
| Calitzdorp Dam |
4.9 |
33.5 |
33.5 |
78.9 |
| Clanwilliam Dam |
121.8 |
95.8 |
95.8 |
98.9 |
| Duiwenhoks Dam |
6.2 |
32.6 |
32.6 |
48 |
| Eikenhof Dam |
28.9 |
97.6 |
97.6 |
101.8 |
| Elandskloof Dam |
11 |
69 |
69 |
100.4 |
| Ernest Robertson Dam |
0.5 |
99.2 |
99.2 |
94.5 |
| Floriskraal Dam |
50.3 |
44.4 |
44.4 |
100.4 |
| Gamka Dam |
1.9 |
0 |
0 |
22 |
| Gamkapoort Dam |
36.3 |
85.2 |
85.2 |
67.6 |
| Garden Route Dam |
10 |
50 |
50 |
42.8 |
| Haarlem Dam |
4.7 |
65.6 |
65.6 |
57.5 |
| Hartebeestkuil Dam |
7.2 |
38 |
38 |
71.2 |
| Kammanassie Dam |
34.4 |
11.5 |
11.5 |
48.6 |
| Keerom Dam |
9.8 |
88.8 |
88.8 |
100 |
| Klipberg Dam |
2 |
55.7 |
55.7 |
74.1 |
| Korentepoort Dam |
8.1 |
32.6 |
32.6 |
42.6 |
| Kwaggaskloof Dam |
173.9 |
67.3 |
67.3 |
72 |
| Lakenvallei Dam |
10.3 |
95.5 |
95.5 |
100.3 |
| Leeugamka Dam |
14.1 |
0.9 |
0.9 |
38.6 |
| Miertjieskraal Dam |
1.6 |
0 |
0 |
31.1 |
| Misverstand Dam |
6.5 |
112.7 |
112.7 |
120.7 |
| Oukloof Dam |
4.2 |
30 |
30 |
94.9 |
| Pietersfontein Dam |
2 |
80.2 |
80.2 |
99.4 |
| Poortjieskloof Dam |
9.8 |
61.1 |
61.1 |
75.1 |
| Prinsrivier Dam |
2.3 |
32.1 |
32.1 |
97 |
| Roode Els Berg Dam |
7.8 |
61.1 |
61.1 |
100.3 |
| Steenbras Dam-Lower |
33.9 |
56.6 |
56.6 |
95.9 |
| Steenbras Dam-Upper |
31.9 |
94.5 |
94.5 |
99.9 |
| Stettynskloof Dam |
14.8 |
100 |
100 |
100.7 |
| Stompdrift Dam |
49.6 |
16.3 |
16.3 |
27.7 |
| Theewaterskloof Dam |
480.2 |
89.8 |
89.8 |
102.6 |
| Voelvlei Dam |
158.6 |
93.4 |
93.4 |
93.8 |
| Wemmershoek Dam |
58.8 |
72.8 |
72.8 |
93.8 |
| Wolwedans Dam |
25.1 |
19.7 |
19.7 |
50.9 |
| Total |
1843 |
77.1 |
77.1 |
87.4 |
Brand new from JoJo Tanks is a JoJo Slimline™ Tank. Perfect for rainwater harvesting and water security, this streamlined compact design is ideally suited for urban areas where space is a consideration.
METRO SEXY
The elegant JoJo Slimline is 1800mm x 750mm, holds 750lt of water and fits easily through a regular door frame. Its ergonomic design ensures that it fits around corners and down narrow walkways of urban homes. You can also simply connect a few Slimlines in a series should you wish to maximise your water storage capacity.
THE ART OF COLOUR
The JoJo Slimline is manufactured in a wide variety of colours to match most home colour schemes. Special colours can be manufactured at an additional cost.
DID YOU KNOW…
When buying an authentic JoJo Tank, you are buying guaranteed quality
- Every JoJo Tank carries a 5-year product guarantee.
- Only the best quality food grade virgin materials are used ensuring that JoJo Tanks will stand the test of time.
- All tanks are UV resistant as they are lined with a carbon black food safety accredited lining material to stop algae growth ensuring that stored water remains safe to use
- JoJo tanks are manufactured in a variety of colours and sizes to satisfy clients’ requirements. At an additional cost, tanks can also be manufactured in specific colours to match your home.
The JoJo Slimline™ is fitted with
- An inlet / overflow with a 40 mm female thread
- A bottom outlet with a 40mm tank connector; fitted with a thumbscrew
- A sieve with a stainless steel mesh to keep out leaves and mosquitoes.
- A black, child-safe clip-on lid to keep the dust out and to ensure that no algae grows in the tank.
- A brass 20mm lockable tap strategically positioned to allow easy access to a watering can or a bucket.
Water Rhapsody are proud installers of JoJo water tanks. Contact us today to order your tank, which will include delivery and installation.
Water Rhapsody -Rainwater Harvesting & water tanks / Greywater Re-Use
For more information on rainwater harvesting / grey water re-use please contact Werner @ Water Rhapsody. We operate throughout South Africa and can provide you with long term sustainable solutions.
The Garden Route drought is far from over, especially for towns being fed from the Wolwedans dam ( Mossel Bay ). The decision has been taken by the Mossel Bay Municipality to spend in excess of R140m to create a seawater desalination plant, to produce an additional 5 mega litres of water a day. This could have been avoided if the municipality were to encourage citizens to harvest rainwater into water tanks and to re-use greywater for garden irrigation or toilet flushing purposes.
Although none of the business has been encouraged to do so, Shell Truckport (Mosselbay) and Bay Car Spa collectively decided to reuse all greywater from their car wash. Water Rhapsody installed a greywater re-use system, which allows them to harvest all the used car wash water (passed through a filtered system) and then the water will be re-used for toilet flushing purposes.
They will no longer draw fresh municipal water to flush the toilets. By re-using the carwash greywater, they are able to save 1,000,000 litres of water a year!
Ryno Van Zyl from Bay Car Spa said: ‘The drought forced us to look at ways to reduce our water usage, but this is something we should have done a long time ago. We are very proud that we’re able to re-use the water and this is something we’ll continue to do, even when there’s more water available. Our water bill has tripled during the last few months, due to the dam levels being below 25%. We are looking forward to your new bill, as we’ll be using 50% less water than before. After seeing the system in operation, I decided to install a similar Water Rhapsody greywater re-use system at my home.’ (22 June 2010)
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Storage Tank & settling Tank
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Sand & Grease traps
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 19 June 2010
By 2012, Cape Town will be out of water. Over the past years, every six to seven years there has been a drought cycle in Cape Town. The last time Cape Town was in drought was during 2004.
As early as 1995 Professor Bryan Davies then Head of the fresh Water Research unit at UCT predicted that Cape Town would be dry by 2013. Not bad from as far back as that.
We have always been able to augment further supply by building an additional dam, but not so anymore. There is not another single place or any more river water that can possibly be found anywhere in the Western Cape for augmenting supply. The Western Cape is simply damned out of water.
The DWA (Department of Water Affairs) are now considering desalinating seawater and pumping water out of the TM aquifer. Neither of these solutions are sustainable and should not be pursued. To draw water out of the TM aquifer, would mean that the DWA will be augmenting supply with fossil water.
Seawater Desalination plants are energy hungry plants and very costly to operate. United States of America has been desalinating sea water for decades. At best, they are able to supply 1000l of desalinated water for $6 (R60 per 1000l). Apart from the high cost, where will we find the additional power to operate such plants? To desalinate 1000l of water, costs 4 kilowatt hours of electricity.
The Department of Water Affairs (the owners of the water in our dams) are no longer able to meet the demand for water for Cape Town from the rivers in the Western Cape. Dam levels on average are reducing by 0.3% per week, compared to 0.2% four years ago. This is an increase in water use of 50%.
The only long term sustainable solution to augment more water, is to harvest rainwater from roofs. If every household took the initiative to install a water tank, it will provide Cape Town with an additional 200,000,000,000 liters (200 million kiloliters) of water per year.
Households with rainwater harvesting systems are less reliant on water supplied by the DWA and are able to live off the grid. How is the possible? It’s possible to connect your water tank onto our current supply and you’ll always use free rainwater first, before using municipal water.
Harvesting Rainwater is environmentally friendly, a long term sustainable solution and will ensure Cape Town have more than enough water to satisfy demand. All dams belong to the Department of Water Affairs, therefore they charge you for water. Rainwater is free and it belongs to all of us.
So why doesn’t Minister Bulelwa Sonjica and the Department of Water Affairs encourage citizens to harvest rainwater?
Perhaps they are ONLY concerned about the loss of revenue for the department, instead of finding long term sustainable solution in addressing the crises that awaits Cape Town….
Werner Neuhoff
Water Rhapsody -Rainwater Harvesting / Greywater Re-Use
Water tanks will soon become a necessity, so here are some useful tips to consider before buying a water tank.
It is estimated that South Africa’s water demand will outstrip supply by 2025, whilst most reports are suggesting that Gauteng will have water outages as soon as 2013 and Cape Town by 2016.
It’s possible to have your very own water supply and not be affected by water outages. Rainwater that are collected from your roof are free and this is the first step in becoming independent from municipal water supply.
 Water Tanks no longer need to be positioned below the downpipe! What’s important to consider before buying a water tank?
1) Location of the water tank (indoors / outdoors / above or below ground)
2) What will the water be used for? Garden Irrigation or Household use. On average, 70% of a households water use are inside the house. This is where you’ll see the biggest benefit.
3) How is the water to be delivered into and extracted, pumped out of the water tank?
4) What size tank do you need? The size tank are determined by the roof catchment area (the bigger the roof, the more water you’ll collect), the type of roof and if reconnected back into the house, the amount of occupants.
5) What colour tank? Some of the more popular water tank colours are below. The tank manufacturer might also be able to produce a tank according to your colour specification.
 Click to enlarge water tank colour. 6) What do I get in return for the cost of a water tank? FREE WATER FOR LIFE…..
Should you wish to gain a better understanding of the calculations that determines the tanks size, please contact us (details on the contact page) and we’ll happily share the information.
We have a specialised team geographically spread across South Africa (Western Cape, Garden Route, KZN,Gauteng and Mpumalanga). You could also request a specialist to contact me to provide a quotation, connect your stored water back into your house or answer any questions you might have.
Water Rhapsody – Water Tanks / Rainwater Harvesting & Greywater Re-Use
 The cost common water tanks available on the market is Vertical water tanks. However, if you have restricted space to position the tank, you could also consider something like Slimline tanks or Low Profile Tanks.
Vertical Tanks storage capacity start from 260l and could go all the way to 20,000l. You can also bridge multiple tanks to achieve the required storage capacity. For example, if the area you have available is 1,500mm x 3,000m, you could bridge 2 x 2500l tanks instead of 1 x 5000l tank.
If you are considering buying a tank an installing it yourself, please bare in mind that tanks are sometimes difficult to transport and you might need up to 3 people to help you position the tank.
Our tanks carry a 5 year guarantee.
For the latest price list (which includes delivery) please contact us .
| TANK |
WEIGHT |
TIPE |
DIAMETER |
HEIGHT |
| 260 L |
8KG |
Water |
640 mm |
850 mm |
| 500 L |
13KG |
Water |
825 mm |
1085 mm |
| 1 000L |
20KG |
Water |
1100 mm |
1200 mm |
| 1 500L |
25KG |
Water |
1210 mm |
1600 mm |
| 2 200L |
30KG |
Water |
1420 mm |
1600 mm |
| 2 500L |
40KG |
Water |
1420 mm |
1800 mm |
| 5 000L |
75KG |
Water |
1800 mm |
2200 mm |
| 10 000L |
180KG |
Water |
2200 mm |
3040 mm |
| 15 000L |
340KG |
Water |
2600 mm |
34500 mm |
| 20 000L |
500KG |
Water |
2600 mm |
4200 mm |
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Against a global rainfall average of 870mm per year, South Africa receives a pitiful 450mm, making it the worlds 30th driest country. Water Rhapsody, with 15 years experience in water conservation, is number 1 in South Africa in Grey water recycling systems and Rainwater harvesting systems. WWF Water Rhapsody a WWF Green Trust award winner can save us up to 90% of our municipal water bills.”
 WWF Green Trust Award
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